Post navigation

Alex’s Newspaper Report

It was a big week for Wesham and the local clubs with the final of the Inter Club Grand Prix on Wednesday evening and the Lancashire Road Relays in Blackpool’s Stanley Park on Saturday.

Red Rose hosted the final Inter Club race of the year as usual in Worden Park in Leyland. Rob Danson was straightaway the leader for Wesham with already a big lead after 400m and he won the 4-mile 3-lap course in 22:50 with a 1min 39sec advantage. James Mulvany was 8th in 25:55 with Lee Barlow making a big finish with 26:16 for 13th place. David Taylor came in 21st in 26:47 with Steve Myerscough and Garry Barnett together in 26th and 27th with 27:12 and 27:13. Mark Belfield finished 36th in 27:43; Paul Gregory 43rd with 28:02; Arran Galvin 56th in 28:53; and Carl Groome bringing in Stuart Topping as the pair finished 62nd and 63rd in 29:04 and 29:05. A gallant effort but the Wesham men secured 2nd team and 2nd for the series, a good result.

Wesham fielded 4 men’s and two women’s teams in the Lancashire Road Relays incorporated in the North West Relays with Cheshire, Greater Manchester and Merseyside on Saturday afternoon, but there were some setbacks. The Men’s A team were disqualified with undeclared runners after Lee Barlow (23:45), Jason Barlow (26:11), (27:39) and Steve Myerscough (24:45) had finished 50th in 1:42:20. the ‘B’ team Jonathan Lawson (29:31), Alan Hudson (29:41), Alan Glasgow (29:33) and Alan Taylor (32:48) were 72nd in 2:01:33 with the ‘C’ team 74th in 2:09:20 (Graham Brook 32:06, Robert Danson 34:19, Roger Leadbeater 29:47 and Russell Mabbett 33:08). The ‘D’ team were also disqualified with Mark Renshall (33:09), Finlay McCalman (34:02), Stephen Browne (30:49) and Ben Wrigley (32:16) placing 75th with 2:10:16. Unfortunately a large number of Stage 1 runners took a short cut after the lead bike took a wrong turn. Similarly in the women’s race the first stage was directed onto a longer loop so no official results are available, but the Wesham women were provisionally 35th in 1:17:01 with Helen Lawrenson 22:38, Sue Rigby 30:57 and Tracey Hulme 23:26, while the ‘B’ team were 42nd in 1:19:33 with Gemma Owen 26:42, Tanya Barlow 26:34 and Kerrie McNeil 26:17.

David Taylor finished 427th in the Great North Run on Sunday in a time of 1:25:54. He had gone through the 5k mark in 18:53; 10k in 39:00 and 50k in 59:24. Michael Goode was 4391st in 1:44:48, with 22:57 for his first 5k and 10k reached in 49:17. Kim McGuire came across the finish line 27395th in 2:26:06.

The Ribble Way ran two distance events on Sunday, a 10k and a half marathon on a trail course on grass along the Ribble banks from Longton to Penwortham and back. In the 10k race Vicky Gore finished 15th woman and 3rd W45 in 59:47 for 47th place overall. Anne Berry was 27th woman in 1:03:07 for 66th place and 1st W55. Steven Gore finished 14th in the Half Marathon in 1:42:24 on the demanding course. Finlay McCalman was 97th in 2:24:56, placing 6th M50.

Kath Hoyer ran in the Blackshaw Head fell race on Saturday finishing 6th woman and 3rd W50 in 56:14, 51st overall completing 5.5 miles and 899ft of ascent.

John Bertenshaw was the fastest time of the Wesham members at this week’s Lytham Hall clocking 20:22 for an M60 age graded performance of 79.46% over the new 2-lap course in torrential rain. Robert Brown ran 24:59 for M60 64.18% with Kay Twist recording 26:25 for W45 61.96%. Stephen Twist ran 29:19 for M50 50.31%; Debbie Bell 30:06 with W40 52.27%; Lynn Brown 32:21 for W55 56.72% and Clive Berry 33:21 with M50 44.58%. The travelling Gores were at the Sewerby parkrun in Bridlington in Yorkshire with Steven running 21:09 for M35 62.73%; Megan 41:19 for JW10 41.31% and Vicky also 41:19. David Taylor took in the Rising Sun parkrun in Newcastle as a warm up to the Great North Run, trotting out 26:49 for a modest 48.23%. In the Blackpool parkrun Peter Cruse ran the third fastest time of the day with a great 19:51 for M55 77.41%.